Home
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Homesickness, a modern luxury we can all afford
CEIBS forum highlights environmental, social concerns in volatile global markets
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
Tumor proteins may aid breast cancer treatment
Source: Agencies |
February 2, 2009, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
EVALUATING how various proteins interact in tumors can help predict a woman's chances of surviving breast cancer, allowing doctors to better tailor treatment, Canadian researchers said yesterday.
Knowing from the outset that a particular woman's prognosis is bad could allow doctors to give her aggressive treatment right away.
Often it is difficult to know which breast cancer patients will respond to treatment and which will not, according to the researchers.
The researchers analyzed proteins in breast cancer tissue from about 350 women in the United States and Europe.
They found that women who survived the disease had a different organization of proteins within the cancer cells than those who died.
Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, they said that tracking these protein interactions enabled them to accurately predict in 82 percent of patients whether their breast cancer would kill them or not.
"We approached cancer as a problem in how proteins communicate with each other - or how proteins interact with each other in networks," Jeff Wrana of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
"It could help to direct the appropriate therapies for individual patients."
The researchers observed 30,000 protein interactions involving about 8,000 proteins, then identified a core group of about 250 proteins most important in forecasting patient survival.
Many of the studied protein groups regulate the actions of other proteins.
If a newly diagnosed patient has protein interactions that might suggest a bad outcome, a doctor could recommend more aggressive treatment through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.
Knowing from the outset that a particular woman's prognosis is bad could allow doctors to give her aggressive treatment right away.
Often it is difficult to know which breast cancer patients will respond to treatment and which will not, according to the researchers.
The researchers analyzed proteins in breast cancer tissue from about 350 women in the United States and Europe.
They found that women who survived the disease had a different organization of proteins within the cancer cells than those who died.
Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, they said that tracking these protein interactions enabled them to accurately predict in 82 percent of patients whether their breast cancer would kill them or not.
"We approached cancer as a problem in how proteins communicate with each other - or how proteins interact with each other in networks," Jeff Wrana of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
"It could help to direct the appropriate therapies for individual patients."
The researchers observed 30,000 protein interactions involving about 8,000 proteins, then identified a core group of about 250 proteins most important in forecasting patient survival.
Many of the studied protein groups regulate the actions of other proteins.
If a newly diagnosed patient has protein interactions that might suggest a bad outcome, a doctor could recommend more aggressive treatment through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
